I love to travel. I have had the privilege of sampling a taste of a number of different countries including India, USA, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sicily, the Netherlands, Belgium, Guernsey, and probably other places that have presently slipped my mind. With some of these countries, including Austria, I have only passed through while en route to other places.
However, large parts of the world remain uncharted territory to me including Eastern Europe. So this year, I decided having worked hard, and saved hard, to venture out into this new and exciting and as yet unexplored part of the world for me.
Next month I will be, God-willing, visiting Hungary, The Czech Republic and Austria, and in particular spending time in their capital cities of Budapest, Prague & Vienna.
I have to admit that my knowledge of these countries is at present fairly limited, so I thought it would be a fun thing to do to bring you along on my adventure in preparation for my travels by finding out and sharing an interesting fact about these places each day.
I also realise that many of you are far more proficient ‘globe trotters’ than I am, and that you may have ample experience and knowledge of these countries and capital cities (you may even live in one of these places!), in which case you are more than welcome to be tour guide and share your recommendations, experiences, anecdotes, ‘must see’ places, and places to avoid in the comments below. The more the merrier! 🙂
In the meantime, here is my first discovery:
Budapest:
Budapest is the capital city, and also the most populous city of Hungary, and is also one of the largest cities of the European Union, with a population of over 1.7million people.
Budapest was formed in 1872 or 1873 from the merging of two cities on opposite sides of the River Danube, Buda (the original meaning of which was probably water) and Pest (a Hungarian word meaning furnace, oven or cove – I wonder if this is due to the hot springs?).
Here is a beautiful picture of the Danube river intersecting these two sides of Budapest:
Image courtesy of Stock Free Images (TM).
Life as it happens to be 